If this comes to pass, the new class of astronauts will use the Orion spacecraft for deep-space exploration. The new astronauts can also look forward to launching from American soil, once the new class of commercial vehicles is ready.
Both SpaceX and Boeing are creating spacecraft for NASA's commercial crew program, which is expected to get going in earnest by the end of the decade. It will be the first time Americans launch from the United States since the space shuttle program, which completed in The new astronauts may begin their careers traveling to the International Space Station, or they may find themselves flying farther. It all depends on where United States space policy goes in the coming years, and what programs NASA finds itself involved in.
The space station is scheduled to last until , but could be extended until or even longer. Other plans are more nebulous, but NASA has several ideas in mind. The agency is testing its Orion spacecraft, which is expected to make an uncrewed flight past the moon in The agency considered putting astronauts on board, but decided not to due to the additional technical burden.
Orion would then carry humans to deep-space destinations in the s and beyond. Where next? NASA hopes to bring astronauts to Mars in the s, if its current plan has support for that long. As a part of that, the agency recently announced a "deep-space gateway" space station near the moon that could help the astronauts train for deep-space missions, or prepare for a voyage to Mars. In this photo: An artist's conception of the "deep-space gateway" space station that could be used near the moon in the coming years.
While the public mostly pays attention to astronauts while they're in space, in reality the astronauts will spend only a fraction of their careers up high. Most of their time will be spent training and supporting other missions. First, the astronaut candidates will have about two years of basic training , where they will learn survival training, language, technical skills and other things they need to be an astronaut.
Upon graduating, new astronauts can be assigned to a space mission, or assigned to technical roles in the Astronaut Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. These roles can include supporting current missions or advising NASA engineers on how to develop future spacecraft. This role has an astronaut on the ground communicating directly with the astronauts on the space station, relaying instructions from the rest of Mission Control.
Astronaut candidates undergo an intense process before the newly selected class is certified as astronauts ready for flight. Among their many tasks will be learning how to spacewalk, how to do robotics, how to fly airplanes and how to operate on the International Space Station. The astronaut candidates will fly NASA's fleet of Ts to gain piloting skills; practice for spacewalks at the Johnson Space Center's foot-deep swimming pool called the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory ; catch simulated spacecraft using a practice version of the station's robotic arm, Canadarm2; learn Russian; and get basic training on space-station operations.
Astronauts also deepen their leadership and following skills through geology and survival training. While the astronaut candidates selected by NASA will be principally working with that agency, they also will find themselves embedded in a network of international partnerships. Along with commercial partners in the United States developing spaceflight hardware and the various NASA centers that work in human spaceflight, there are 16 nations participating in the International Space Station — each with its own realm of expertise.
The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory is 40 feet deep, feet long and feet wide. It holds 6. After graduating, astronauts continue participating in both generic refreshers and mission-specific training. McClain, for instance, was in the pool on Tuesday despite having already conducted two spacewalks where she spent 13 hours and eight minutes outside the International Space Station.
Cardman, who graduated astronaut training in January, has yet to go to space. But the underwater suits use foam blocks and weights, helping to lift and sink, respectively, to give astronauts a neutral buoyancy representative of space. Their backpack is hollow, too, as astronauts in the pool receive oxygen through a tube but in space would receive oxygen and other life support systems from their backpack. Each astronaut is accompanied by at least four scuba divers. If you consider that 30 to 40 astronauts and cosmonauts undergo training in one year at five different sites, you realise that all this calls for a tremendous organisational effort.
The ISS partner space agencies have successfully managed the harmonisation of this training for over a decade. You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
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